Get Weekly Warrenville News

Happy Earth Day!

Aprril 22 is Earth Day. Also time for spring cleaning. It is a time to think about the 3R's: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. Keep reading to learn how to get rid of your unwanted "stuff" and keep it out ot the landfill.

Recycle It

Upcoming Recycling Events in Warrenville

Car Seats - Target is collecting Car Seats from April 17 - 30. Take old car seats to a Target location, and get a 20% off coupon for a new carseat. (Note: resale shops do not take car seats, as there are too many recalls and restrictions)

Bike Rodeo - May 20 - Collecting Bikes to be fixed and re-used to those in need

Ongoing Recycling Events

Remember that most items items are made of natural resources - better to find a way to re-cycled even after the item is no good (e.g. keys, small metal pieces, lawn chairs, books). There are also things that the right person might be able to use (pens, blank paper, crayons, games, puzzles, yarn, glue, craft supplies, books, file folders, tools, lawn furniture .....). Here are places to get rid of of stuff that's too good to throw away:

Warrenville Ace Hardware - Electronics Recycling and CFL bulbs - Take electronics to a box in back of store (small items, TV's for a price) and CFL light bulbs (bring to cash register).

Warrenville Public Library: Eye glasses (including sunglasses) for Lions club - in between doors at back entrace. Maybe when construction is complete, more recycling will return.

Warrenville City Hall - Batteries (alkaline, lithium, lithium-ion) - Collection bins by upper and lower entrances. Keep the chemicals that leak out of batteries out of our water supply!

St. Irene's - Paper Recycling - includes outdated text books

Freecycle- Join the Warrenville Group - post what you want to give away - "one person's trash is another person's treasure" - You make arrangements for them to pick it up. For a bigger audience, there are other Wheaton and Naperville groups too. (Can be all sorts of things. For example, I got rid of landscape stones and logs (and they came to get it), and old chair cushions.

Wheaton Public Works: Second Saturday each month. 9-noon - small electronics, cooking oil, scrap metal and more (no TV's or hazardous waste).

SCARCE in Glen Ellyn has BookRescue, Tools for Schools and Super Crayons projects - Tools for Schools is for any supplies that a teacher might use in a classroom, including any and all books, paper, pens, pencils & crayons, game pieces or groups of other small things for kids to count / manipulate, anything that could be used for craft projects, any office supplies, buttons, sewing machines, sewing supplies and more. See Tools for Schools List. Also Book Rescue takes all books. Books for kids are distributed to teachers, for classroom use, and SCARCE finds homes for other books, or recycles those that are in bad shape. All Crayons (broken or not) are used by the Super Crayons project.

Shopping bags - Resale shops including Discoveries in Warrenville re-uses shopping bags and plastic bags in good shape. - If DIscoveries can't use your plastic bags, then take them for recycling next door at Family Foods.

Tennis Shoes - Take them to the Nike store in the Aurora Premium Outlet Mall - Nike grinds them for playground surfaces so bring shoes with holes. - if the shoes are wearable, they can go to a resale shop

Bubble Wrap & Peanuts - UPS and other packaging stores (call first)

Hangers - return to cleaners (call first)

Electronics and more - Wheaton: Second Saturday each month. 9-noon at the Public Works - small electronics, cooking oil, scrap metal and more (no TV's or hazardous waste).

Garden Tools - Garden Works Project now has a facility in West Chicago is creating a Garden Tool lending library. (103 W. Washington - in the same building as Gallery 200 - stop by the gallery while you are there)

Find a Recycling Extravaganza!

These events, usually sponsored by a community or municipal group, provide a "drive-thru" recycling. Each event has its own list of items, and arranges for charties or commercial organizations to take the various items. Find upcoming extravaganzas and read the flyer for the event or go to their webpage to get the details. ThereTypical items include:

Scrap Metal

Eye Glasses (Lyons Club usually collects and distributes)

Electronics (Look Carefully! Usually electronics are considered to be anything with a battery or cord, but each event has different requirements. Old monitors and TVs may not be collected, or may be collected for a fee).

Old Bikes

Garden Tools

Medical Equipment

Books

Pet Supplies

American Flags

Many More - check your event listings

Hazardous Waste

Some things can't be recycled, and shouldn't go in the landfill. These include old medicine, cleaning chemicals, oil based paints, and weed killers. We're lucky to have the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) disposal site in Naperville that is open every weekend. Learn more at these websites:

Naperville Hazardous Waste Dropoff - Jefferson and Forthill (Not in the Fire Station Anymore). They made the drop-off bigger so cars can move thru more quickly - open Sat and Sunday mornings.

Medicine Disposal- at many local police stations (not Warrenville), and HHW- Dump all the pills into a ziplock bag. - April 29, 2017 is Drug Take Back Day. There additional drop of locations on the DEA website as well as ongoing collections at West Chicago and Naperville police stations

Additional Resources

If you are looking for more information, check out these websites. It is illegal to put TV's into the landfill, it's difficult to find places to recycle them, and the information is always changing.

Get Warrenville News

News & events will delivered to your email weekly.

Calendars

The events on this calendar are emailed out weekly to subscribers. Sign up above to register.

This calendar will highlights some events, but can't include everything. Below are links to other local calendars. If you run an organization, and would like can event featured, see the Contribute page. Help managing this calendar is greatly appreciated.